A Tale of Two Plum Cakes

A Tale of Two Plum Cakes

You know that old saying, "My eyes were bigger than my stomach"? Well, that certainly applies here, as you can see. Yes - I made three plum cakes. In one night. I got a little ahead of myself when I was slicing those pretty little plums, not paying attention to the fact that if I only made two small cakes I only needed to slice two plums. So what to do with all that extra, sweetened fruit? Make another cake, of course.

A Tale of Two Plum Cakes

When I started searching my files for plum-cake recipes I came up empty. I know! I'm as shocked as you probably are! I tend to slice my plums and eat them raw so this was actually the first time I have used them in a baked good. I'm glad I did, however, because now I have not one but two plum cakes sitting on my kitchen counter. How could that ever be considered a bad thing?

A Tale of Two Plum Cakes

You're probably reading this post and thinking, "Plum cakes? In October?" And while I agree that plums seem ... summery ... Serious Eats tells us that plums are indeed also harvested in this leaf-crunching, pumpkin-munching month. Plus I got six (!) of them for a dollar at the grocery store the other day. How could I pass that up? Suffice it to say I have plenty of plum recipes now, with two under my belt. I'm totally prepared for next "May through early October."

A Tale of Two Plum Cakes

I don't know what it's like where you live, but until the past couple of days summer had been doing its best to give us one last hurrah, with temperatures reaching into the high 80s several days. That is not when I want to be wearing a sweater and eating pumpkin pie. It's when I want to sit on the patio, drink iced, sweetened tea, and snack on a summery fruit cake. So that's what I did. And since there are a few more days left in this plum-producing month you can do the same thing.

Brown Butter Plum Cake by Patent and the Pantry (I made two small loaves, but next time I wouldn't because it was hard to nail down a baking time.)
Plum Yogurt Cake by Family Spice (I sliced the plums instead of dicing them.)

I have to say that I enjoyed both of these cakes but for different reasons. The recipe I used to bake in the small tins has a consistency reminiscent of pound cake; it has a dense crumb, that is. The second recipe has a creamier consistency but is less sweet, which means it cries out for a dollop of sweetened whipped cream. And just one more note: My mom thought the plums were apples after baking, so if you have a plum-aversed eater in your household just fib a little bit. I won't tell on you.

Check out some other great projects at the Weekend Wrapup at Tatertots and Jello!

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